The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
In accordance with development of electronic video devices, image formation is being performed with use of a recording head of an ink jet type or a thermal transfer type. Especially, a great amount of attention is being paid to the increase in the size of the head or the development of a multiple structure in the head, in order to achieve a high-speed recording.
However, in the case of image formation conducted by way of the ink jet method, for example, the amount of ink discharged from nozzles which constitute the recording head and the discharging direction from the nozzles vary from one nozzle to another, and therefore such variation in some cases appears as image irregularities such as lines. Such image irregularities become more prominent as the size of the head increases or the development of multiplying of the head proceeds. Consequently, stripe-like irregular patterns appear periodically on a formed image at intervals corresponding to the width of the recording head, and such image irregularities are factors for markedly deteriorating the quality of the image. Further, there is a problem that such image irregularities change with time over a long period of recording.
The specification of Japanese Patent No. 2748321 discloses an image forming apparatus which uses multiple heads capable of forming an image without creating a density irregularity in the image by electrically correcting the density irregularity.
However, the above-described conventional image forming apparatus operates with the use of only one print parameter as attribute data, and with this structure, it is not possible to correct an input image using the most appropriate density irregularity data, by considering various printing conditions in the formation of an image.
The present invention has been proposed in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and the object thereof is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing the best possible correction onto an input image by storing a plurality of attribute data to be associated with density irregularity data of a test chart, and carrying out correction by selectively reading out a density irregularity data item corresponding to a given attribute data item.
In order to achieve the above-described object, there is provided, according to the present invention, an image forming apparatus comprising:
a recording head having a plurality of recording elements for forming an image on a recording medium on the basis of given image data;
a density irregularity characteristics data generating section for generating density irregularity characteristics data on the basis of density irregularity data of a pattern generated with use of the recording head, and a plurality of attribute data used for forming the pattern; and
a density irregularity correction section for correcting image data by using the density irregularity characteristics data generated in the density irregularity characteristics data generating section.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.